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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27436624">Teach Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeandSpaceNovelist/pseuds/TimeandSpaceNovelist'>TimeandSpaceNovelist</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Domestic Bliss [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who &amp; Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Music, whouffaldi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:36:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,231</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27436624</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeandSpaceNovelist/pseuds/TimeandSpaceNovelist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor decides to take some time to finally teach Clara how to play the guitar and in the end, finds out something about her which brings them closer together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Twelfth Doctor &amp; Clara Oswin Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Domestic Bliss [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152947</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Teach Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So this is my first official story that I've written. The idea just came to me seeing The Doctor play guitar at the beginning of the Zygon Invasion and I thought it would be a cool concept. Don't go too hard but comments and criticisms are welcome :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For a man who had a ship that can travel in time and space and can go anywhere and any when he wanted, The Doctor found himself recently staying in a bit more. He hadn't intended to but ever since he and Clara repelled a potential Zygon uprising, he had just felt a bit tired. He had been doing this for just over 2000 years at this point and he felt that he just needed a little break once in a while. What was the most surprising to him was that his beloved Impossible Girl had actually stayed in with him on their Wednesdays. Despite her overwhelming need for excitement and danger to counteract what she felt was an increasingly mundane life on Earth, there had been no fuss and no argument. Just two friends staying indoors and having a good time by themselves.</p><p>The Doctor checked the time, it was 3:10. He had arrived at the normal time (well, normal for him) to pick up Clara but she had appeared to be busy. He assumed it was just teacher stuff but still made an effort to scan for anything potentially dangerous but he hadn't found anything. He wasn't quite sure how long she'd take so he decided to busy himself with the one human activity this regeneration had been so fond of. The Doctor wasn't new to instruments, far from it. He had been an avid recorder player in his second regeneration but quickly dropped it upon his third one. Over the years, he hadn't been against playing music, including helping create music with some of history's great artists (Debbie Harry still owed him big time for his suggestion of Heart of Glass as a title over Heart of Stone). But it wasn't something he did in his spare time, until a few Earth months ago.</p><p>One day, during a rare visit to the Maitland household, the Doctor found himself helping teach Angie how to play guitar at the behest of Clara. He had, of course no problem teaching her, having learned from Jimi Hendrix himself but something clicked that day. He found that he rather enjoyed playing the instrument and continued to play it, sometimes to the mirth and annoyance of one English schoolteacher from Coal Hill. Normally, he'd find himself banging out "Beethoven's Fifth" or "Amazing Grace" but recently he had tried to come up with his own composition. He hadn't found a name for it but he was sure it was gonna be a lovely tune when it was done. He just needed to finish it.</p><p>So the Doctor headed to his new favourite spot when he needed to think or play guitar, the Tardis Lounge. It wasn't the most glamourous of rooms, pretty small compared to what the Tardis normally constructed with a red Victorian arm chair and a brown sofa as its only furniture with Tardis blue coloured walls. But it had done the job. He sat down and started off just playing some of the Earth songs he had become fond of since he started doing it as a hobby ("Oh, Pretty Woman" had become a favourite mostly because it made Clara blush as he played it) and then he got right back to work on his own creation. He was getting close to it, he reckoned it wouldn't be long until he had completed it. He just needed a bit more time. But then again, he was a Timelord after all.</p><p>The Tardis doors flung open for a slightly tired Clara Oswald as she looked forward to hanging out with her best friend after a much longer day than anticipated. An unscheduled staff meeting had increased her day an extra hour as she arrived in the Tardis at about 4:00 in the afternoon. She immediately noticed that the Doctor wasn't in the console room and a small flicker of worry flashed upon her face until she heard the soothing sounds of his guitar playing.</p><p>"He's playing that song again." she said to herself, shaking her head and smiling.</p><p>She had of course noticed his continued playing of this new song he was creating but she enjoyed hearing it, so its repeated occurrences were not something she complained about. Now that she knew where he was, she dropped her handbag on a nearby chair and went towards the Tardis Lounge to see her friend. She initially didn't want to disrupt his playing so she waited outside the door, hoping this would be the day when he finished it. It seemed it was heading that way as she assumed the song was drawing to a close until there was a slight pause and a curse from the Timelord. Not this time. She felt this was her cue to come in and check on him. She leaned against the door and watched him intently before he noticed she was there.</p><p>"You'll get it one day, I know you will." she offered as words of encouragement.</p><p>"You know some days I think quite the opposite." The Doctor responded as he put down the guitar, frustrated at his lack of success.</p><p>She walked over to him as he got up to greet her and they hugged. He hadn't been a hugging person really but for Clara, sometimes all he wanted to do was hug her. The two sat down on the sofa together, talking about each other's day when The Doctor noted that ever so often, Clara would sneak a look at his guitar. The Doctor realizing this, decided to bring it up in the conversation.</p><p>"If you are that interested in it, you could just tell me you know."</p><p>Clara looked a bit befuddled for a second until she saw what the Doctor was referring to. She wondered if she should tell him about her interest in it but then quickly made up her mind as she wasn't quite in the mood for travelling today.</p><p>"Yeah, it's been something I've wanted to try and learn for a long time." Clara said with small smile as she realized she had been caught admiring the guitar.</p><p>"Well, why didn't you just ask me? I would have taught you." The Doctor said, slightly hurt that she didn't come to him for help.</p><p>"Never the right time I guess. I didn't want to slow down or take a break. I just wanted to travel and have fun and adventures. Learning to play guitar isn't something you can just do just like that."</p><p>The Doctor understood but also worried. Clara had gotten very reckless as of late. He tried warning her about it at the Drum but she didn't seem to heed his advice. He thought he'd lost her after Bonnie revealed herself to him and even though she turned out alright in the end, it was still a period of worry he didn't want to have. So if playing guitar means she would finally slow down for even a little while, he'll take that chance.</p><p>"Ok, I'll teach you how to play." he said after a few seconds of thought.</p><p>"Oh! Thank you!" she said as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which he would then rub in shock.</p><p>"First things first, you're gonna need a smaller guitar. I mean no offense but your hands are very small."</p><p>Clara glared at him slightly but nodded as she realized she did indeed have small hands, at least compared to the Doctor who the guitar was made for. She didn't particularly like being teased for her height or size but it was loads better than some of the comments she got from him early in this regeneration. She never wanted to go back to that point.</p>
<hr/><p>The Doctor left the room briefly before returning with a smaller acoustic guitar for Clara to play. The body of the guitar was painted purple while the waist and the bridge were white. The headstock was black and the strings were white. It was quite a sight to see. The Doctor had intended it to be a gift for Rose as he was gonna take her to learn to play with Queen but then the Battle of Canary Wharf happened. Still, it won't go to waste now.</p><p>Clara took the guitar into her hands as she tried to emulate what she had seen the Doctor do so many times. The form was right but her positioning was slightly off.</p><p>"Here, let me just adjust you a bit there." he said as he went over to fix her hands and put it in the right places.</p><p>Thankfully for Clara, the Doctor was behind her at the moment so he missed her quite obvious blushing as he placed his hands on hers as he moved them to the right places. The help would work though as she seamlessly got herself in the right position and was able to remember it easily. One of her biggest strengths was that she tended to be a fast learner, something the Doctor learned over the course of their travels and friendship. The Doctor then moved onto to teaching her what to do, pointing out the main parts of the guitar as he explained what and what not to do while playing. She did enjoy hearing him explain things sometimes. She used to be annoyed with him over it but when he gets onto a subject he likes and is excited about, it's honestly very cute to hear him go. In order to move away from talking about feelings, he once excitedly talked to her about planets when they were on board the Orient Express in space.</p><p>After some time of thoroughly teaching Clara the basics which also included teaching her about notes and which ones produce what sound, The Doctor felt she was ready to learn a song. He had an idea of what he wanted to her to play and see her master first but seeing as she wanted to learn the guitar for a while, he wanted to see what she'd like to play.</p><p>"So, do you have any songs in mind that you want to try and learn as your first?" he inquired of her.</p><p>Clara began to rummage through her mind for songs she wanted to learn. She had her favourites obviously but she soon remembered a song that she wanted to learn how to play since she was a little girl. Now more than ever felt like the right time to finally learn how to play it.</p><p>"I'd like to learn to play "Ben" by Michael Jackson." she said, making her choice.</p><p>"Ben? Really? All of the songs in human history and you choose to learn a song about a rat?" the Doctor said, coming off a bit more callous than he wanted to.</p><p>Clara bristled a bit at his question. She had never told him about her love for the song and what it meant to her so she didn't expect him to act normally about it. It has a weird dedication but the song is still quite beautiful and it meant a lot to her.</p><p>"Yeah. My grandad used to sing it to me sometimes whenever I would feel sad to help cheer me up. He loved that song so much that we even played it at his funeral. Rat or not, the song meant a lot to him and in turn it means a lot to me so yes Doctor, I wanna learn Ben." Clara said with her voice slightly raising at the end with tears stinging at her eyes.</p><p>The two sat in silence for a couple seconds before the Doctor wrapped his arm around her in an embrace which she accepted as his apology. He then walked out of the room and returned with the sheet music for the song as he didn't know it off hand. The two learned it together note by note as the Doctor wanted to learn it himself as he could see the song made her happy and that's all he wanted to do.</p><p>While they were playing it together, Clara began to sing the song which threw the Doctor off balance slightly. He hadn't heard her sing before. He didn't know how good she was. After a brief while, he stopped playing, Clara not realizing that she had been playing alone and that she was singing aloud. He could only listen and watch her singing this song that meant so much to her so well. By the time she finished, tears ran down her cheeks, no doubt due to remembering her grandfather.</p><p>"I didn't know you could sing so well." The Doctor said to her in admiration of her ability.</p><p>"You never asked." Clara said giving what the Doctor called the sad smile.</p><p>The pair put down their guitars as the Doctor pulled Clara into an embrace as they hugged again. He could hear Clara sniffling and shaking as she cried into his jacket. The two of them stayed in the position for the next few minutes, just enjoying each other's warmth. This day didn't turn out the way they expected but it brought them closer together which neither friend were against. Sometimes, even all of time and space can pale in comparison to something so simple, like a song about an unexpected animal.</p>
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